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Ukrainian Kids Show How They See War Through Disposable Camera Photos
From May 1 to May 14, 2025, the House of Lucie in Budapest will host an experimental and deeply human exhibition titled Through Young Eyes: The War They See. Unlike any other visual documentation of Ukraine’s ongoing war, this collection presents it through the eyes of its youngest witnesses—Ukrainian children.
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![Photo of Iva Kucherenko]( "Photo of Iva Kucherenko")
Through Young Eyes: The War They See is the first solo exhibition from Behind Blue Eyes, a charity project founded by Artem Skorohodko and Dmytro Zubkov in 2022. The project began in then-recently liberated village of Lukashivka, in the Chernihiv region. Moved by the resilience of the local children, Artem and Dmytro distributed disposable cameras and invited them to document their lives.
“One of the first signs that made us realize the therapeutic effect of this process was how holding a printed photo helped children express themselves,” says Skorohodko.
They would describe what they saw in the image, which would naturally unfold into stories and emotions they had struggled to articulate during previous conversations
Artem Skorohodko
co-founder, Behind Blue Eyes Project
Skorohodko recalls one photo that remains especially vivid: “I’ll never forget the image taken by 10-year-old Masha from the liberated village of Lukashivka. It shows her grandfather’s destroyed carpentry workshop. Masha had nine hamsters and, looking at the photo, she said, ‘This was my grandpa’s workshop. I used to get sawdust here for my hamsters. It was bombed, and now I have to find sawdust somewhere else.’”
Today, Behind Blue Eyes operates in 19 communities across Ukraine. More than 200 children between the ages of 7 and 16 have participated, producing over 2,500 photographs that offer raw, unfiltered glimpses into life in wartime. More than just a photography project, the initiative is a living archive of war seen from a perspective too often overlooked.
The project now steps onto the international stage with its first solo exhibition, Through Young Eyes: The War They See, opening May 1 at the House of Lucie Gallery in Budapest. Curated by Vivian Wan and supported by the Farmani Group the exhibition features a powerful selection of photographs captured by the children themselves.
Far from traditional war photography, these images offer an intimate, emotional tapestry of life under siege: bombed homes, fleeting moments of play, and the quiet strength of communities refusing to fall apart.
The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Arman Soldin, a Bosnian-born French video journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP), whose own life was shaped by war. Evacuated from Sarajevo as an infant during the Bosnian War, Soldin came to Ukraine as one of AFP’s first correspondents following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. He was killed on May 9, 2023 whilst on assignment.
His work often involved filming people too afraid to speak on camera, using his phone to capture voices that might otherwise go unheard.
“By giving back to the people who shared their time, their spaces, and their stories with us, and to uplift underserved voices even more fiercely,” says Vivian Wan, Through Young Eyes curator, on the idea behind the exhibition. “It’s a way to champion the voices most tender, most unseen—just as he did, just as I tried to do.”
Through Young Eyes: The War They See will be on view at the House of Lucie Gallery in Budapest from May 1 to May 14, 2025.
-5a646718cae8d76c7457deaec7ce37b2.jpg "Photo of Daniel Kosoy")
-9da5990310d454b2bbcf1c71230e643b.jpg "Ruslana Ostapko performing in the play “Hetman,” portraying Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Source: Ruslana Ostapko.")
-7c95cbc56a064b2c0960d7e111a72344.jpg "Diary of War cast at New York City’s West End Theatre stage, a project that turns Ukrainian testimonies into theater reading, created by Daria Kolomiec and directed by Musa Gurnis,")
